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Arnold Ipolyi

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(Family name originally STUMMER)

Bishop of Grosswardein (Nagy-Várad), b. at Ipoly-Keszi, 20 Oct., 1823; d. at Grosswardein, 2 December 1886. At the age of thirteen years he entered the ranks of the alumni of the Archdiocese of Gran (Esztergom), studied two years in the Emericianum at Presburg (Pozsony) and later at Tyrnau (Nagy-Szombat), and finished at the Pazmaneum at Vienna, where he attended lectures on theology for four years. In 1844 he entered the seminary of Gran, took minor orders in 1845, and was ordained priest in 1847. From 1845 to 1847 he acted as tutor in the family of Baron Mednyánszky, was then curate at Komorn-Sankt-Peter (Komárom-Szen-Péter), in 1848 preacher at Presburg, in 1849 spent a short time as tutor in the family of Count Palffy, and became in this year parish priest of Zohor. Even before his ordination he concerned himself with historical and art-historical matters. In 1854 his "Ungarische Mythologic" came out, as the firstfruit of his work, in which he treats of the ancient religion of Hungary. Although the work won the prize offered by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the author afterwards withdrew it from the press, so that at the present time it is very rare. In 1860 Ipolyi became parish priest at Török-Szent-Miklós. Accompanied by Franz Kubinyi and Emerich Henszlmann, he made in 1862 a journey to Constantinople, where he discovered the remainder of the library of Matthias Corvinus. In 1863 he was made canon of Eger, and in 1869 director of the Central Ecclesiastical Seminary at Pesth; in 1871 he became Bishop of Neusohl (Besztereze-Bánya), and in 1886 Bishop of Grosswardein where he died on 2 December of the same year. Ipolyi was member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, as well as a member of different learned Societies at home and abroad. He was one of the founders and at first vice-president, then president of the Hungarian Historical Society. His literary activity extended into the provinces of history, art-history, archaeology, and Christian art. He enriched the Hungarian National Gallery with sixty valuable paintings. He bequeathed to Grosswardein in his will, for the purpose of founding a museum, his collections which had been brought together with a great expert knowledge of art. Of his literary works, in addition to his "Mythologie", the following are well known: "Biography of Michael Veresmarti", an author of the seventeenth century (Budapest, 1875); the "Codex epistolaris Nicolai Oláh", in the "Monumenta Hungariae Historica: Scriptorum", XXV (Budapest, 1876); the "Biographie der Christina Nyáry von Bedez" (Budapest, 1887), in Hungarian; also the "Historische und kunsthistorische Beschreibung der ungarischen Kronisignien" (Budapest, 1886), in Hungarian. A collection of his lesser works has appeared in five volumes (Budapest, 1887).